Check Car Battery

A few minutes of attention once or twice a year can perhaps double the life of your battery, saving you cold, hard cash. Checking your cars battery regularly not only ensures its longevity, but most importantly, it ensures a safe driving experience for you.

If you have a lead-acid non-maintenance free battery, you need to check its water level at least once a week. You could shorten your battery's life if you keep on using it with some exposed plates. Plus a battery with less than desired water level could be dangerous. It could explode. Hydrogen gases can

form inside it and can ignite even with a smallest spark from the engine. First hitch: no battery caps to remove, it's a sealed, maintenance-free battery. Maybe so, but there's access to the individual cells, perhaps disguised under a label.Open it up and look inside. The electrolyte should come up to the bottom of the filler cap, or at least near it. If the level is down, especially if the plates are exposed, add water. Always use distilled water in a battery. There is

never any need to add additional electrolyte. Batteries will normally consume water, but the sulfuric acid component of the electrolyte remains behind and never needs to be replenished.

If your battery terminals are covered with green fur that looks like it belongs in a bad sci-fi movie, you'll need to clean that up. Start by pouring some warm water over the terminals to dissolve the sulfation. This accretion is normal, but it can prevent good contact between the battery posts and the clamp, which in turn keeps your battery from providing enough voltage to start or prevents it from charging properly. Remove the terminals, and brighten up all the metal with a wire brush-style battery post terminal cleaner and a baking soda paste. Don't splash liquid around the engine compartment or onto the paint, and rinse everything off thoroughly. Check car battery for grime and corrosion also. The corrosion that forms on the battery terminals could shorten its life by so much if left unclean. Plus it prevents proper contact between the battery terminals and the cable clamps so that your battery could not function optimally. The same is true for loose battery clamps; so don't forget to check the clamps if they are tight enough.

You should also check the voltage of your battery especially if it has some miles already into it. An old battery could stop working abruptly without warning, and you don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead car battery. Also check for obvious damage that can occur in your battery. Check for leaks because nothing can drain your water faster than a crack on your battery's casing.

So, check your car battery on a regular basis so that you can get to work on time if nothing else. You could even save your job with a battery that is fit to crank up your car.

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